Feature story

Après-skiing with renewable energy in Bulgaria

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Orphey Hotel in Bankso, the Bulgarian ski resort

Skiers can enjoy a leisurely swim after a day on the slope

Cold outside and hot inside

The heat is on for the hotel guests

When Daniela Gigova’s husband told her he planned to use water rather than oil as the source of energy to heat their new hotel, she thought he’d gone mad. “It seemed absurd, and I was sure it would never work,” says Mrs Gigova.

Today, standing proudly in the bright lobby of their 3-month-old Orphey Hotel in Bankso, the Bulgarian ski resort, she has no regrets about supporting her husband’s initiative. Nor should she. The hotel’s monthly heating bill is just 7500 Lev (€3800) -- 75 per cent less than the 31,000 Lev (€16,000) they estimate it would have cost them to heat it using oil. There is a constant, reliable source of fuel to heat all 70 rooms, and a hot pool that stands at a steady 33 degrees, something no other hotel in the ski region can boast. “It’s the hottest in town,” says a smiling Mrs Gigova.

The savings for their business are huge. As a hotel catering to winter sports enthusiasts, heating is their biggest cost. And the Gigovas are doing their bit for the environment - the hotel emits little carbon dioxide, one of the gases responsible for global warming.

Energy reservoir

The secret of the Gigovas’ energy savings lies five meters underground, in a 100 cubic meter man-made reservoir next to the hotel. It collects warmer water from underground sources and cold water from melting snow running down nearby mountains. Hotel Orpheus uses this water in an elegant, yet simple system in which heat created by a change in water pressure is used to warm the inn’s rooms, showers, Jacuzzis and pool.

To finance the energy project the Gigovas returned to United Bulgaria Bank (UBB) which had provided an earlier loan for hotel construction. This time the hoteliers got more than they bargained for – a grant, in the form of a 20 per cent loan rebate, to be provided on completion of their project.

The Gigovas are one of six UBB clients in Bulgaria currently benefiting from this money-back grant scheme. They qualify under a fund set up last year by the EBRD and the multi-donor Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund, which helps compensate for Bulgaria’s loss of electricity from the closure of four units at the Kozloduy nuclear plant. The EBRD is lending €50 million to six local banks which then lend money to clients investing in renewables and/or energy efficiency improvements; another €10 million from the KIDS Fund is used to provide grants to these energy entrepreneurs.

Taking initial risk

Interest in such energy projects is growing in the business community, but there is still some scepticism. “The idea of using energy efficiently or using renewables generally remains an alien concept in Bulgaria,” says EBRD Principal Banker Dobrin Staikov. “It’s slowly changing today, and our programmes to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy are gaining momentum. It’s a question of getting entrepreneurs to take that initial risk.”

Zoltan Kiss, who leads the EBRD-managed KIDS Fund, says the grant finance is an important catalyst in promoting energy efficiency and renewables. “The purpose of the grants is to act as an incentive for entrepreneurs to undertake such projects,” says Mr Kiss. The grant funds will not last forever, but Mr Kiss expects they will encourage enough projects to demonstrate widely the energy and cost savings that can be achieved through renewables and energy efficiency.

Big savings

For the Gigovas, the impact of renewable energy on their business has been a pleasant shock. “We were amazed by the savings on our energy bill. And the offer of the grant came as a great surprise,” she adds happily, still in disbelief.

The grant was clearly a bonus for the Gigovas, but it was not the deciding factor when they were considering the renewable project. “If I were to build a new hotel tomorrow, I would use the same heating system, with or without a grant,” says Mrs Gigova.

Guests at the Orphey Hotel include more than just tourists enjoying the great skiing on offer in Bansko. “We often have managers and other people interested in building new hotels who come here to see exactly how our heating system works. They want to learn, so they, too, can use similar systems in their hotels,” says Mrs Gigova.

The system has been so successful that the Gigovas have taken their work home with them. “We have installed a similar heating system at home,” says Mrs Gigova. “It’s wonderful.”

Contact:
KIDS Fund at EBRD
Tel: +44 20 7338 6897
Fax: +44 20 7338 7175
Email: goldspip@ebrd.com

EBRD bank lending
Tel: +44 20 7338 6554
Fax: +44 20 7338 6119
Email: hemmingc@ebrd.com

13 May 2005